Today we celebrate Priesthood Sunday as we pray for our parish priests and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. We are very fortunate to have a seminarian with us this weekend from St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe. We welcome our own Quinn McNeill; son of Ryan and Leah McNeill, who will speak at all the Masses after Communion to share with us his vocation story. Quinn is in his first year at Borromeo Seminary who grew up right here at Sacred Heart. You will find an insert in today’s bulletin with the pictures of all the seminarians at Borromeo and St. Mary Seminaries. Also, the insert contains a letter from Bishop Malesic to all the young people of our diocese. Please keep our young people in your prayers for vocations that they may be open to God’s call to the ordained or religious life. Ask God to help all of us to encourage any young person who may show signs of a religious vocation or expressed interest in serving God and the Church in this way.
Last weekend we held our Annual Solemn Eucharistic Devotions with our closing Mass at 5 PM on Sunday. Fr. Jon Hawkins, our guest homilist, gave a beautiful and inspiring homily. I am very grateful for his time and effort in sharing God’s Word with us. I am grateful to everyone who made the weekend so very prayerful and beautiful, especially the closing Mass. Fr. Joe Robinson and Deacon Rich did a great job with the Mass and procession, the altar servers who did a very fine job being so prayerful and reverent, giving their time and effort. I am grateful to the Knights of Columbus and to the children of our Confirmation and First Communion classes as well as their teachers and catechists, Abby Cook and Maggie McCarron. Thank you also to our musicians and cantors as well as our ushers and lectors. Thanks also to the Knights of Columbus who participated in the procession, they are a very important witness to our parish community. May God bless all who took part in this special time of adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
The visiting clergy were very impressed by the participation of our parish community in the closing services. I am grateful too, for their presence and participation.
Again, I encourage more of you to consider committing to a holy hour each week or sharing an hour with family or friends. The blessing of perpetual adoration is a great source of grace for our parish and if it is to continue, we need to have more people committed to adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Saturday, November 1, is the Feast of All Saints and because it falls on a Saturday it is NOT a HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION, so there will be one Mass at 8AM. The Feast of All Saints provides the opportunity to honor all those who have gone before us in faith and now are enjoying eternal life and happiness in God’s heavenly kingdom. We realize that there are more saints in heaven than we may know or have been officially canonized by the Church. All the saints give us a wonderful example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The saints are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice. In Matthew 24, Jesus tells us that we will be judged at the end of life based on His command to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and visit the sick and imprisoned because when we do these things for anyone, we do them for Jesus Himself. For this He will welcome us into the Father’s House where He has prepared a place for us.
Next Sunday, November 2, we celebrate the Feast of All Souls or Poor Souls. On this day, we especially pray for those who have died and have not yet reach the heavenly kingdom. We pray for the poor souls in purgatory. Purgatory is that state of being in which we make up for our sins on earth and thereby complete the journey to God our Creator. Our prayers are very important to the poor souls because they cannot help themselves. The best prayer that we can offer for the poor souls is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. That is why it is so important to have Masses said for the dead. We will have our annual Memorial Mass for those who have died this past year on November 2, at the 5 PM Mass in the church. All are invited to attend this Mass, especially those who have lost loved ones this past year.
